I read a great post today from a blogger that I follow and wanted to comment on it. It was about living at home with parents for the summer and ways to get along with them so that you don't feel the weight of your parents on your shoulders. I encourage anyone to read it because the author gives a lot of good advice! Go to: http://philosophicalhigh.blogspot.com/ to check it out.

I wanted to say that this is the first year I have spent away from home although I've been having a great time I did face a few challenges;

The first challenge I faced was living with new people. My roommates this year were guys that I've been friends with for the last two years, but I've never lived with them so I had to get used to their living habits. For me, I always tried to remember that I was living with other people, so I would try to clean up after myself and not make common areas a hassle for my other roommates to enjoy.

The second challenge was making time to do everything on my own. I always did my own wash, so that wasn't a big deal, but I had to learn to make time to take care of myself and my apartment. When I was still living at home I was responsible for keeping my room clean, but living on my own I had to learn that I was responsible for not only my room but the rest of the apartment. This meant that I would have to adjust my schedule to make time for taking care of more cleaning.

The third challenge was eating. Many college students get meal passes and eat at places on campus, while others (like me), have to worry about preparing meals as well as eating them. Breakfast and lunch were easy because I could throw something together. It was dinner that was the challenge. I'm used to sitting down with my family every night and eating together so I brought that with me to school. I quickly learned that preparing supper took a lot of time and planning, and I gained a new level of appreciation for my Mom. Going to the grocery store was another big hurdle! I try to get in and get out as quickly as possible but it still takes time and I always have to make a list before hand. This is something I've never done before so it took a little getting used to.

The last challenge was time management. It's kind of funny but when I was living at home my Mom liked to ask me about school and she would always ask me if I finished my homework. It makes me smile to think about it now and it's one of the things that I miss about home, but it kept me focused outside of school and helped me to practice good time management. Being away from my parents and having a whole new world opened up to me made me think more about time management. Because my mom took an active role in my schooling at home I had a solid foundation to build from, and with a little adjustment I was able to get most of my schoolwork done on time(THANKS MOM!). I say most because I was taking 19 credit semesters which is way too much work for any sane person!

These are just the big challenges that I faced this year. There were many others, like meeting new friends, the dreadful long distance relationship, different teaching styles, and new grading systems, but this is what college is all about. We make the transition from teenagers to adults by learning to take care of ourselves, adjusting to new environments, and meeting new people. Sure we stumble and fall along the way, but that is life. It is so much better to learn through experience than it is to have someone tell you how it is. As teens, our parents told us how it is but now is our time to stand up and experience things for ourselves.www.smbcollegelife.com

This sounds a lot like my first year of college. (Although I had a meal plan, the food was so terrible I often found myself cooking pasta in my tea kettle : ) However, I was particularly interested in your little long distance relationship comment at the end. That is what I'm up to right now, and I was wondering if ya had any good advice? : )

-AThought355

p.s. thanks for the link : ) I haven't spent much time publicizing my site. Instead, I've been making a bit of money writing articles for associatedcontent.com. If you feel like making a few bucks, you should check out that site : )